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Florence Named Safest Place in Arizona

Florence was recently named the safest place in Arizona by Value Penguin, a company that provides information to consumers about the best value in credit cards, home and health insurance, and other topics. Staff at Value Penguin analyzed the most recent crime data available from the 2013 FBI Crime Report and ranked 55 cities and towns in Arizona. The top five safest cities and towns ranged from small to mid-size communities and were located all over the state.

The top five rankings, in order, were Florence, Clarkdale, Somerton, Sahuarita, and Snowflake-Taylor. The average crime score among the top five safest communities was 71% lower than the average Arizona community.

Value Penguin separated the safest cities into three categories to account for the difference in size between small towns and large cities. The categories were towns with populations between 3,000 and 10,000; mid-size cities with populations between 10,000 and 50,000; and large cities with populations greater than 50,000. Florence’s population of 26,682 was the highest among the top five safest communities because it included the institutionalized population.

In addition to adjusting its crime score metric for population size, Value Penguin also adjusted its metric for the amount of violent crimes and property-related crimes per 100,000 people. They then aggregated the crime scores and weighted violent crime at 80% and property crime at 20%. Florence’s crime score was 488 compared to the least safe community, South Tucson, with a crime score of 9,556.

This is not the first time Florence has been recognized for its low crime rate. Florence made four different top safest places lists in the past year.